Extending a ticket when journey has already started

[adc82140]

I got into a conversation with a teenage family member about a PF they had received for buying a ticket online once their journey had started.

The background:

They possessed a valid physical ticket from A to B, but teenagers being teenagers their plans changed, and they needed to travel further. They therefore went online and bought a ticket from B to C. They were pulled at the gate line at their destination (C) and PF'd for buying once the journey had started, after showing their original physical ticket and their "top up" on their phone screen.

The issue will be that the journey for the online ticket will not have been "started", I presume.

The PF has been paid, and chalked up to experience.

Apologies I don't know the precise destinations, but it was Great Northern, and I suspect station B was Cambridge.

What action should they take if a last minute journey plan change like this happens again?

 

[Adam Williams]

Was the ticket from B to C purchased before departure from B?

 

[AlterEgo]

Hard to say without knowing the full details. You have to buy your ticket before you begin travelling ticketlessly.

Sorry to hear they paid the penalty fare, which on the face of it was issued unlawfully. A ticket bought after departure is a valid ticket and these are not grounds to issue a penalty fare. If they are still in time, they should appeal. But it would greatly help to understand the minutae of what happened.

 

[adc82140]

Was the ticket from B to C purchased before departure from B?

Yes.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Aug 2025 ==

Hard to say without knowing the full details. You have to buy your ticket before you begin travelling ticketlessly.

Sorry to hear they paid the penalty fare, which on the face of it was issued unlawfully. A ticket bought after departure is a valid ticket and these are not grounds to issue a penalty fare. If they are still in time, they should appeal. But it would greatly help to understand the minutae of what happened.

Thanks. Yeah getting full details out of teenagers is tricky. I think we are out of time to appeal, as I gather this happened a while ago.

 

[nr758123]

On many occasions I have used my season ticket for the first part of a journey and only bought a ticket online to extend my journey beyond the extent of my season ticket after I have boarded the train. It has never occurred to me that I might be breaking any rules in doing so, nor that anyone might think I was breaking any rules.

 

[Yorkshire09876]

Surely the scenario given is valid, provided the ticket from B to C is bought / activated before the train departs from B?

 

[Watershed]

Surely the scenario given is valid, provided the ticket from B to C is bought / activated before the train departs from B?

Absolutely.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is there a possibility that for whatever reason the ticket purchased was not fulfilled as e-ticket?

 

[Haywain]

Surely the scenario given is valid, provided the ticket from B to C is bought / activated before the train departs from B?

And as long as the train calls at B.

 

[johnny_t]

I got into a conversation with a teenage family member about a PF they had received for buying a ticket online once their journey had started.

The background:

They possessed a valid physical ticket from A to B, but teenagers being teenagers their plans changed, and they needed to travel further. They therefore went online and bought a ticket from B to C. They were pulled at the gate line at their destination (C) and PF'd for buying once the journey had started, after showing their original physical ticket and their "top up" on their phone screen.

The issue will be that the journey for the online ticket will not have been "started", I presume.

The PF has been paid, and chalked up to experience.

Apologies I don't know the precise destinations, but it was Great Northern, and I suspect station B was Cambridge.

What action should they take if a last minute journey plan change like this happens again?

As described (though noting your later caveat about 'teenagers') that should be fine. If they've been stopped at 'C', they should be able to see that the ticket was bought before the train left 'B'. The fact that they were on the train to B when they bought it is no more relevant than if they were on the bus to the station or sat in Burger King. The only 'mistake' is maybe confusing the gateline staff by even mentioning the A to B bit of the journey.

However (again noting your later caveat about 'teenagers') I'd be careful of getting too involved, as you can put a lot of effort in and then they suddenly pull some bit of information out of the bag that completely changes things.